Friday, August 28, 2009

Just wanted to post some last minute pics from the Seattle City Hostel opening. Scott Moore from Bellevue Fine Art Reproduction, had an awesome fish eye lens on his camera. Here are a few pics he took in my room.

Scott has a bunch of great pics on his Flickr site of the other rooms. You can check those out by clicking here.

Another guy that came through the room was Michael Rogers from Seattle Food Tours. Michael also has a bunch of shots of the other rooms on his Flickr page too. He was the guy that dropped all the knowledge about Belltown's Movie Row past (see last post). There's also an online article in the Seattle Times about the project at the Hostel as well as some history of the building.

I think this kid's mom is secretly whispering to him, "Look honey. That flaky artist was too lazy to paint that wall. Go kick him in the shin!" That wall actually has two back to back bunk beads that go there. If my schedule allowed me more than five days to work in the room, there would definitely be more tentacles and monkeys up there. Then we would see who kicks who in the shin.

These last shots, below, are from the guy that painted the room directly across from mine. I had to stop painting for a few minutes and take a few of Zak while he was working.

Zak had the genius idea of continuing his cloud, sky, and bee pattern that he painted in his room, and painted it on the wall of the building directly outside of his window.

Genius. Oh yeah, he's two floors up, if you couldn't tell. Inside his room he also has a similar flower on one of the walls.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics. Scott and Michael, thanks for the links and pictures.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Last Friday night was the opening reception for the Hostel Art Collective. It was an amazing night with a huge turn out. Huge shout out to Lee, Nancy, Jen, Weirdo, Brian and everyone else that put this together and made it happen. It's great to see a group of people do this for the local art scene, and long over due in this city if you ask me. The hostel will be having a rotating art gallery in the lobby for the downtown art walks, so keep an eye out for that. You can see some videos of the other artist's rooms on their site. There's also a huge list of websites for all the participating artists. Here's the link. http://hostelartcollective.wordpress.com/

Here's are some quick shots as I was finishing up the walls. What was really fun, was hearing people get in heated debates about the images. "She's shooting the evil monkeys!" "No, she's helping the monkeys. They have the same uniforms!" I did have a specific story in mind, but I think I'll let people decipher it on their own. Interpretive storytelling. I love it.

My time was pretty limited. I came on to the project late and had to do it in between side jobs. After sketching out the characters, I'd say it took three days to do the space chick, and two days to do the chimps. Lots of long hours and paint fumes. I pretty much used the same approach as I do with smaller paintings, just on a bigger scale. Still used acrylics for the finish, but for a lot of the big areas, spray cans came in handy for large coverage and loose sketching. After that it was just tightening everything up with brushes.

One thing that I wasn't expecting was that a lot of people that rolled through the room started taking pictures with the ray gun shooting chimp. Interactive art. Gotta love it. Thanks for the pic Gerrie!

I had to get a pic of this guy's shirt when he rolled through the room. Being a huge Clint fan, I was floored by this bad ass custom drawn shirt. Someone just went right on the shirt with a sharpie and sketched this out for him. I'm jealous Cameron. Very cool.

Another image in the room that people were taking pictures with was the slobbering eyeball. My not so subtle nod to the Star Wars trash compactor scene. Thanks for the pic Dani. All she needs is two hair buns on either side of her head and the scene is complete.

Anyway, really really great night. I'm hoping to get more links and pics to share. I'll throw those up on here when I get them. One interesting thing about the building, and the neighborhood it's in, is that it used to be a place for movie studios to distribute, market, and screen movies. Belltown used to be called movie row, and Pramount and MGM used to have offices in some of the buildings down there. That's why the bar across the street, the Reindvous, has that screening room. That's also why some of those buildings down there have the art deco style architecture, so that it echoes the Paramount and MGM studios. A guy that does tours in the neigborhood filled me in on that. The things you learn when you actually leave your house.

Sorry to side track, but I thought that was some intersting history. Thanks to everyone that stopped by to check out the room, and big thanks again for everyone that put this together. I'm hopeing to do a joint show with one of the other artists from the hostel in the future, so stay tuned for more info on that. Until then, keep an eye out for more future shows on their website.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

I was recently asked to be part of City Hostel Seattle's new project. They asked 47 local artists pick a room a paint it up however they want. I've been working on it on and off since last week. The reception is this Friday. All the details on the Hostel and the event are below. If you're in Belltown this Friday night come on down. My stuff will be on the 2nd floor. Room #208. There will be lots of cool art to see. Three floors worth! Hope you can make it down. Here are a few links and blogs with more info and pics of other artists.

Address: At 2nd and Battery in Belltown, next to Buckley’s, across from Roq La Rue. Time: 5pm – 9pmAges: All Ages Encouraged!Cost: FreeLive Music and Refreshments will be provided.Gallery/Lobby: “Group Show” will be hanging from 8/14/09 – 9/16/09

City Hostel Seattle “Let There Be Art!” Hosts 47 Local Artists during Belltown’s Art Walk on Aug.14 2009.

City Hostel Seattle a new Hostel, in Seattle’s vibrant Belltown neighborhood, is featuring 47 Seattle Artists that will paint a wall mural in each room to showcase Seattle’s talented artists. The grand opening will be on Belltown’s Second Friday Artwalk August 14, 6pm-9pm, open and free to the public.

“LET THERE BE ART!” Is a project to give a collective voice to the Seattle artists whose talent is all too often unseen and unheard. City Hostel Seattle will be a platform for local Seattle artists to been seen on a local and international scale.